Confronting Climate Change in Oregon

Oregon residents, like people across the nation and world, are experiencing impacts from global warming. With the Pacific Northwest having warmed at least 1.5°F since the first half of the 20th century, climate change is already being felt in the Beaver State.

Record-breaking wildfires are destroying forests and communities, and declining mountain snowpack and earlier snowmelt in the mountains are jeopardizing summer water supplies, and an acidifying ocean is devastating production at shellfish hatcheries.

Unless Oregon – and the broader global community – makes deep and swift cuts in heat-trapping emissions, future changes to our climate could be even more dramatic. Climate models project Pacific Northwest temperatures to increase a further 5°F to 8.5°F above today’s levels by the end of the century, with the rise depending on the rate at which we continue generating heat-trapping gases.